Moroccan authorities prevented the congresswoman for Podemos, Noemí Santana, and the counselor for International Solidarity of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, Carmelo Ramírez, from Nueva Canarias, from disembarking in El Aaiún, the capital of Western Sahara, this Tuesday.
As reported by Podemos in a statement, they are being returned to Gran Canaria airport, when they intended to meet with Sahrawi representatives to check the situation in that territory and the human rights violations they claim Morocco commits in the area.
"Podemos Canarias denounces this action as a flagrant violation of human rights, another example of the illegal occupation and plunder of resources in Western Sahara, and criticizes the complicity of the Sánchez government with the Moroccan monarchy and its alliance with international Trumpism," assures this party.
Podemos states that its general secretary in the Canary Islands "was detained without explanation" upon landing in El Aaiún and "ultimately prevented from continuing the mission in occupied Sahara," which it describes as an "arbitrary act."
"The mission aimed to document the human rights situation on the ground following the latest repressive offensive by Moroccan forces in the occupied territories," it adds.
Noemí Santana and Carmelo Ramírez, who presides over the State Federation of Associations in Solidarity with the Sahrawi People, are scheduled to hold a press conference upon their arrival at Gran Canaria airport.
